


Tony's Innocent

by Walkinthegarden



Series: First Innocent [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Child, Gen, Nightmares, death of a child, innocent people die, vulnerable!Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-04
Updated: 2014-04-04
Packaged: 2018-01-18 02:31:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1411663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Walkinthegarden/pseuds/Walkinthegarden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark remembers the first person that died under his watch, in fact, it's his fault she died.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tony's Innocent

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not happy with this one at all, the words just didn't wanna go.

“No!” Tony screamed, waking from his nightmare just as Steve burst through the door.

 

“Tony! What happened? Why’d you scream?” the super soldier asked in alarm, his eyes still thick with sleep. Unfortunately he wasn’t out of it enough not to notice the tears on Tony’s cheeks. With a wave of his hand he sent the other Avengers back to their rooms before stepping in and closing the door behind him.

 

“Bad dream Cap, you can go,” the genius tried to assure him, but one look at Steve’s face told Tony that the man wasn’t going anywhere.

 

“What was the dream about?” he asked softly, sitting down at the edge of the billionaire’s bed.

 

“Nothing…” he trailed off when Steve raised an eyebrow. “I was remembering something… the first person I didn’t…” he trailed off again, his voice thick with emotion.

 

“The first person you couldn’t save?” Steve supplied with a sigh. It was a burden they all had. Doing what they did, they expected people to die, but the first one never leaves you, never stops haunting you. “What happened?”

 

“I was walking home when this man came out of no where. I guess his son died when the Taliban took my weapons. He blamed me for the kid’s death and he wanted me to die. I was stupid…”

 

_Tony glared at the man. It was mid day and there were people around them screaming and running in all directions at the sight of the gun._

_He smirked, opening his mouth to speak._

“… I mocked him.”

 

_“You don’t have the balls to kill me. You just want someone to blame and I’m convenient but when it comes right down to it you won’t pull the trigger and you’ll go to jail for the rest of your life.”_

“I didn’t mean for him to…”

 

_“You know Stark, killing you would be to easy. You don’t deserve that mercy. I’m going to hit you where it hurts,” the man said with a demented smile._

“It doesn’t excuse what he did but I should have treated him like a man grieving his son… not like a common criminal. It’s my fault what he did.”

 

_“No!” Tony shouted as the man reached under a nearby table and pulled a young girl out from under it. “Let her go.”_

_“Why? My son is dead and you don’t care. Why do you care for this girl?” the man asked, shaking her by her hair._

“Tony…” Steve whispered, tears in the super soldier’s eyes as he watched his friend suffer under the weight of the memory.

_“Don’t, please, I’ll give you anything you want,” Tony begged, his eyes meeting those of the girl. She was a pretty thing, with large green eyes and dark black hair. She couldn’t have been more then eight years old. Her eyes were pleading with him to help her._

_“No!” a woman screamed from behind the police barricade that Tony hadn’t noticed before. “That’s my daughter! Give her back! Katie!”_

_“Mama!” the girl shrieked in response._

_“Please, I’ll do anything you want. I’ll give you anything you want. Let her go, take me instead. I—”_

_The gunshot rang out._

Steve closed his eyes, turning his head as if he were actually looking at the image.

 

_Katie fell forward, a large hole in the back of her head. Tony felt the world stop around him. He didn’t hear the screams of the girl’s mother or the shots that came from the police around him. He didn’t see the man’s body fall to the ground._

_His eyes remained on her as he fell to his knees. Tears clouded his eyes as he stared at her hollow eyes, dark and lifeless, looking at nothing. With eyes still wide with shock he looked down at his white suit. Her blood had splattered across it and his face. He could taste the metallic liquid on his lips._

_She was dead. A little girl was dead, because of him._

“You didn’t pull the trigger Tony, you can’t blame yourself,” Steve tried to comfort.

 

“Like hell I can’t! I antagonized him! If it wasn’t for my fat mouth she’d be alive, probably about to start seventh grade,” Tony yelled before turning and leaning against the rail that overlooked the large window. His shoulders shock with anger and sadness.

 

Steve sighed, getting up and walking over to his friend.

 

“We all have pain. We all had that experience. We always remember the first one, they stay with us for a reason. They give us the strength to keep fighting. If we stop trying to avenge them then we’ve lost ourselves.”

 

“We shouldn’t have to. We should have saved them in the first place.”

 

“Yes, we should have.”


End file.
